Wheeled toy



1,521,573 P. MYERS wHEaLED T Y Filed sept. 1v, 192:5 2 sheetssheet 1Dec, 30, 1924.

P. MYERS WHEELED TOY Filed Sept. 17, 1923 2 sheds-shea 2 UW e PatentedDec. 30, 1924.

I Unirse srarasrarsnr or rIIILIP MYERS; or G'Lnnvrnw," ILLINOIS.

WHEELED TOY.

Application filed September 17, 1923. Serial No. 663,077.

To all whom t may concern:

Be it known that I, PHILIP MYERS, a citizen of the United States,residing` at Glenview, in the county of Cook and State of Illinois, haveinvented certain new and useful. Improvements in a INheeledv'loy; and Ido hereby declare the following to be a full, clear, and exactdescription of the invention, such as will enable others skilled in theart to which it appertains to make and usethe Same.

My invention relates to wheeled toys of the general class adapted to bedrawn along the floor by a child. Vith such vehicles as heretoforeoffered on the market in a large varietyr of forms, the pleasure of thechild y using the same is often interrupted by his having the vehicletipped over on its side, or by getting some one of the wheels caught onadjacent furniture. IlVith al small child,

such an occurrence not only interrupts hisv play and leads to his cryingover the mishap, but also often necessitates. the assistance of someolder person to right or extricate the toy. Consequently, toys of thiskind have not heretofore afforded the uninterrupted enjoyment of a childhaving no supervision for his'play.

l.sive in construction andV which will readily of novel configuration.

My present invention aims to overcome this handicap by providing aconstruction for a toy vehicle which will cause the vehicle to rightitself automatically after encountering any obstacle in its path whichwould up- Set a wheeled toy of ordinary construction;

also, to provide a construction which will cause the toy vehicle'toextricate itself Vautomatically when one of its wheels catches on atable leg, chair leg or the like. Furthermore, my invention provides awheeled toy' construction which will automatically permit the toyvehicle to vary its shape while' being drawn about, which will Abeinexpen- Fig. Y3 is a transverse vertical section taken along the line 33 of Fig. 2. j

Fig. 4 is a plan view showing how the toy vehicle can extricate itselfafter one of its rear wheels has caught on a table leg or chair leg-inthe path of this wheel.

q Fig. 5 is an enlarged section through a portion of Fig. 4, showing howthe perforate 4members strungupon the elastic cord roll on each otherand elongate thecord. Fig. 6 is a horizontal section similar tov Fig. 2but showing a simplified embodiment of my invention.. i I

Fig. 7 is a plan view of another simplified l embodiment.

In the embodiment of Figs. l to j5,' inclusive, the toy of my inventioncomprises a pair of wheel-carrying axles spaced byran FICE."

elastic reach which permits these axles to be moved lout of their normalparallel relation to each other, each of the wheel shafts beingrotatable about the` adjacent portion of the reach as an axis. `Thereach proper,l or the member which extends longitudinally of the vehicleand which connects'the two wheel-carrying axles', desirably consists ofa number of consecutively disposed elements which are movablewithreszpectvto each other and which normally space the wheel axles fromeach other by a fixed distance. For this purpose, I desirably employ aseries of perforated elements, vsuch a wooden beads, anda flexiblememberl extending through these perforated elements and normally holdingthe two wheel axles respectively vagainst the two end elements of theseries. I also desirably' employ this same flexible element as a supportfor another v member which extends in front of the forward wheel shaftto form a. tongue for the vehicle. Ifl the tongue and reach portionssimulate parts of an animal in configuration, I may likewise employ theflexible member as means for supporting a 'rearwardly projectingextension of the reach in simulation of the tail of thisV animal, aSshown in'Figs. l and 4.

Furthermore, I desirably employ an elastic, such as a soft rubber cordfor the flexible member which carries these reach, tongue andtail'portions, and I preferably assemble the perforated elements: .ontthis elastic when the latter is under tension, so

that the resiliency of the elastic will tend to maintain at leastthe'portion between the two wheel axles substantially straight and willautomatically aline the series of perforate elements' after they have.been inoved out or' alineinent by the encountering of any obstacle inthe path ot the Vehicle. Moreover, l desirably arrange the wheelsha'l'ts and the adjacent perlforate elements so that each shaiit willbe piyoted freely upon these adjacent elements and will be lrept by thelatter from direct engagement with the elastic cord. Y

Illustrative ot' such a construotionthe drawings show a vehicle havingtwo wheel shafts 1 and 2, each oil which has its central portionenlarged to lforni a ring 2. rlhis ring spaces; two beads 4 and 5respectively slipped upon the shalt lrom oppositie ends o'tthe latterand these beads in turn space the wheels 6 and 'i' from the ring portion3,

each of the wheels being desirably sleeved upon a metal bushing 8slippedover the adjacent end oi't-he'shalit7 and being desirablyretained on the shaft by slipping` a metal washer 9 on the adjacent endandthenexpanding the tip of the shaft as shown in Fig 3. Y

lnterposed'between the two wheel shafts are a series of perforated beads107 all of which are strung loosely upon apsolit rubber cord 11, thecord being desirably smaller in diameter than the bore otthe ringportions o or" each wheel shaft. At the liront ot the Vehicle, thn cord11 is also shown as extending loosely through the main. portion ot thebore ol a head piece 12 and the cord has its ior ward end doubled backupon'itself into a loop 18 wedged in the forward end otthe said bore.

At the rear end of the vehicle7 the rubber cordll is shown as extendingloosely through a series of beads 14e and as being tightly wedged in thetail end bead 15, this wedning f action being readily secured by slidingtheV tail end bead over the elastic cord when the latteris stretched tosuch an extent as to reduce its diameter considerably. and thenreleasing the tension on the cord.

In assembling the beads and the wheel shaifts. the elastic cord 11 isplaced under tensiomso that the length et' the part otthis cord betweenthe 'forward `bead l'and rear bead 15 is considerably greater than thenor.-

mal length of that portion of vthe elastic. @wing to this stretching'ofthel cord, its tensioi'i automatically normally holds the consecutivebeads in tightlyabutting relatioin while its flexibility permits theconsecutive beads toroll upon each other as shown in Figs. 4: and 5,thereby allowing the reach of the'vehi-cle tofloe disposed in the lorinof a curve and hence permitting the Vehicle tov extricateitself'whenerer one ofits wheels encounters an obstacle. such as thelegy oit' a chair or table, as shown for example in Fig. 4t. Thatnis tosay, ifone offthe. rear wheels catches on the leg 19 of a chair ortable, thi.` continued forward pulling ot' the Vehicle by the usual cord16, which is here shown as having a knob 17 secured to its forward end,will cause the reach portion of the bead series and of the rubber cordto be flexed until the wheel engaging such'an obstacle can extricateitself, after which the elasticity oit the rubber cordautomaticallystraightens the reach.

By forming the ring portion 3 ot `each wheel axle with a bore of amplesize, l' cause the two beads at opposite sides oif'this shaft to extendinto the bore of the ring into direct engagement with each other, sothat they will combine -in affording a'pivotal mounting for the axlev`with respect to the reach olf ythe vehicle. ln doingso, these adjacentbeads also prevent the metal ring portion o iroin contacting directlywith the elastic .v cord and hence avoid the possibility of hai'-v bycorrespondingly tipping the shaft carrying thisV wheel withouttiltingithe vehicle as a whole and lhence Withoutupsetting the latter,as shown for example in Fig. 1. So also, il the- Vehicle is lifted ortossed on the floor from any angle? the .independent rotatahilily of thewheel axles with respect te th:` reach connecting;` the saine will causeeach axle to swing automaticallyfinto itsI normal horizontal positionwhenever one wheel on this axle encounters the floor? so that the toyvehicle even when hand-led roughly and without thev exercise oit anyjudgment will still keep its wheels-in proper operative disposition.Consequently, the pleasure et the chld in using such a toy isuninterrupted and no yattention oraid on the part *of aniY older whenamusing-'himself with a toy vehicle :is

above disclosed.

lowerer.` while. .lf have heretofore dcscribec-my invention in a form inwhich the body or the vehicle resembles an animal and .1; composedmainlyv of spherical beads, l do not wish to be limited to anyparticular configuration oit thefvarious parts,y nor de wish to belimited to theyarious details ot construction and arrangement as abovedescribed. Obviously. these might be varied v in many ways withoutdeparting either :trom

'the spirit oi: "my invention; or from the appended vclaims@For example,Fig. 6 shows a section through a simplified embodiment in which thereach otthe-yehicle is composed oit' two 'i tubes presentingnconyexedV'ends towards'teachy other `and` each extending through one of thewheel-carrying-axles.

Y uo

Fig. 7 shows a still more simplified form in which a single-piece reach20 extends through medial perforations in the two wheel-carrying axles land 2, thereach being kept by spring cotters 21 from sliding lengthwiseof the axles.

I claim as my invention- 1. A toy vehicle having two wheel-carryingaxles and a reach extending through both thereof and spacing the axles,both axles being pivoted upon the reach so as to be freely andcompletely rotatable abo-ut the axis of the reach.

2. A toy vehicle comprising a resilient and normally straight reach andtwo normally parallel wheel-carrying axles connected by the reach andboth rotatable about the latter as an axis, the resiliency of the reachbeing such as to permit the axles to move o-ut of their normalparallelrelation.

3. A toy vehicle comprising a pair of normally parallel wheel-carryingaxles, and a resilient member Vextending transversely through both axlesmedially of the latter to form a reach and a tongue, both axles beingpivoted upon the reach so as to be freely rotatable about the reach asan axis.

fl. A toy vehicle comprlsing a stem extending longitudinally of thevehicle and a plurality of wheel-carrying axles pivoted upon the stemfor rotation about the stem as an axis, the portion of the stemrbetweenthe axles being flexible and having inherent resiliencytending tomaintain the samev straight.

A toy vehicle comprising a stem member consisting of beads strung upon aflexible element, a pair of axles each having a medial portion providedwith a perforation through which the flexible element freely extends,and a pair of wheels mounted on each axle, each axle having itsperforated medial portion disposed between two adjacent beads.l

6. A toyvehicle comprising a stem member consisting of beads strung upona flexiblc element, a pair of wheel-carrying axles each having a medialportion provided with Y a perforation through which the flexible elementfreely extends, and a pair of wheels mounted on each axle, each axlehaving its perforated medial portion disposed between two of the beadsand having its said medial perforation of such a size as to permit thetwo beads between which the axle is disposed to contact with each otherso as to space the flexible member from the bore of the perforation.

7. A; toy wheeled vehicle. comprising a pair of spaced andwheel-carrying axles each having a medial perforation transversethereof, an elastic flexible member extending through the saidperforations, and a plurality of spacer members strung upon the flexiblemember between the two axles, the normal length of the flexible memberbetween the two axles being lessthan the joint'length of the spacermembers.

8. A toy vehicle comprising a palr of wheel-carrying axles, an elasticcord 'connecting the medial portions yof the two axles, i

and spacer elements strung upon the elastic cord between the two axlesand having a` joint length greater thanl the normallength of the portionof the elastic cord between the two axles.

9. Atoy vehicle comprising a pair kof wheel-carrying axles, an elasticcord connecting the medial portions of the two axles,

and spa'cer elements strung upon the elastic vvcord between the twoaxles andhaving a 'joint length greater than the normal length" of theportion of the elastic cord between the two axles, the spacer elementsdisposed b etween the axles having bores greater in diameter than theelastic cord.

11. A toy vehicle comprising a pair of l2. A toy vehicle comprising apair of wheel-carrying axles each having a transverse perforation, anelastic member ex tending through both perforations, and perforatemembers strung upon Vthe elastic member, the perforate members includingspacer' members disposed between the two axles and othermembers disposedrespectively ahead of the front axle and. behind the rear axle, theelastic memberbeing secured to the endmost ofthe perforate'members andlprojecting `beyond therearmostk perforate member to form a tall-for thevehicle.

PHILIP MYERS.

Signed at Chicago, Illinois, Sept., 13th,

